Asphalt 8: Airborne is most certainly one of the more enjoyable racing titles we’ve seen this year and is personally one of my favorite games of 2013. I’ve spent many hours racing, jumping, and knocking out opponents. However, I never played long enough to unlock two of the game’s best and most expensive cars, which players either need to invest an insane amount of time in to unlock or put down close to 100 dollars to unlock with credit.

So, what does purchasing those two vehicles do to the game experience and is the increased speed worth the payout for those who decide to purchase instead of play? I collected some credits and purchased the Mercedes-Benz Silver Lightning (325,000 credits) and the Koenigsegg Agera R (375,000 credits). My first reaction was “holy shazbot, Batman! It’s fast!” - getting an increase of close to 100 mph is certainly felt.

Koenigsegg Agera R

All of a sudden the tracks become much smaller and shorter. It's not just about faster vehicles, because each course is now a new challenge to master as the increased speeds can get players from one section to the next in a much quicker fashion. Also, with the increased speed each turn on every course becomes more challenging, requiring better reaction time as players need to make sure to hit it perfectly or they'll crash. These faster vehicles certainly enhance the experience and make for a far more intense time than with slower cars. Every turn needs to be hit with near perfection, and it’s possible to keep the boost going for quite some time on certain courses that have the items lined up correctly for that.

The increased speed is great as it’s exciting to hit those jumps to spin longer and jump higher and further. It’s great taking them online too, though I didn’t have enough credit left over to fully upgrade them after spending the 700,000. That set me back a bit against some of the competition who clearly poured time or money into the game.

Mercedes-Benz Silver Lightning

Overall, fans who wish to invest their time or money will be met with increased excitement when running with the Mercedes and Koenigsegg cars. Things move much quicker and it requires expert knowledge of the tracks and the game’s controls to ideally navigate the courses to perfection. I had a good time running with these vehicles and think others will greatly enjoy them as well. Remember, speed doesn’t just enhance the vehicles but also the course, making it a new experience to race through.

GT Racing 2 is another game I decided to take a drive with using its top vehicle. The Bugatti Veyron costs 5772 credits, which costs around $40 just by itself. Users can spend $50 to get 7500 credits or $100 to get 16000 credits. So basically, $100 would buy 3 of the 7 elite vehicles.

I played the beginning of the campaign with the first available vehicle, though never got to far beyond that. So going from what’s pretty much the slowest car in the game to the absolute fastest is something that should be noted.

Bugatti Veyron

At first, I absolutely hated using the Bugatti to race around with as I was expecting the fastest and most expensive car in the game to be fun to use. Each race I would end up all over the road, hitting the left side of the wall and then the right side as the car has some serious sensitivity issues and lacks solid control. The poor controls had such a negative impact on me at first, but I ended up sticking with it and changed the control sensitivity in the options to 0. This ended up helping a lot more with the control of the vehicle, even though it was still very jolty experience.

I also thought the game might be a bit broken at those high speeds, because it wasn’t just me that was all over the road at times. I’ve seen the computer go running straight into the wall without turning, which makes me wonder if it’s the speed or something else entirely. Some races just felt off, between the competition and the handling of the vehicle. After a while of racing with the Bugatti I was able to get a better grasp of its handling, which led to a more enjoyable race even though I still find the wall on several occasions. It’s certainly a difficult beast to handle.

It’s just not the easiest experience out there. Depending on the track, the high speeds require a lot more use of the brake. Of course, having brake assistance is a big help at these high speeds but without it the brakes become an even more important factor on courses that have continuous tight turns. That was another new challenge that came about: trying to quickly turn left while braking and then quickly turn right and tap brake with the other thumb.

Citroen Survolt

I feel the handling of the Bugatti is difficult, but also think the high speeds are tough on some of these tracks. So, instead of purchasing another one of the high end cars with close to the same speed I decided to slow it down a bit and chose a lower tier vehicle. I went with the Citroen Survolt, a car that’s still plenty fast but not too over the top. The few races I participated in with that vehicle were far more interesting and felt better and more natural. Of course the car handles a lot differently anyway, but the slower speed makes turning and sensitivity less of an issue. Basically, what I’ve learned from this experience is that players are in for a challenging time when racing with high speed vehicles.

GT Racing 2 feels a bit demanding with how easy it is to go through a ton of credit. Spending cash might be worth it on the lower tier vehicles for those who enjoy the game, but I would question putting cash towards the high end vehicles. Especially if players want to keep it at a more casual and enjoyable experience. The high speeds are really challenging and can be very frustrating at times - and not in a good way.

I do look forward to trying it out once again with a gamepad instead of touchscreen. I think it might have a better effect on the controls. We'll have to wait and see about that one.